Where has the Replace Text tool gone since update yesterday?

Report · May 11, 2016

I opened Adobe Reader DC today and thought the toolbar looked different. The Text replace tool has gone (the one with the crossed-out T and the comment bubble beside it)!

I think Reader downloaded an update yesterday.

If I want to replace text (instead of just deleting or inserting, I can still do it manually (by highlighting the text I want to change and typing my changes). However, the changes appear in red and blue, which they didn't do before (text was just blue before).

I've checked the tools available and there's no option for the Text replace tool any more.

Also, the highlight colour has changed - it's now orange instead of yellow. Is this because of the update too?>

Was this meant to happen? I use the Replace text tool a lot. Please can In have it back?

Report · Oct 26, 2016

This is not helpful at all. Recipients need to be able to clearly see markups--that is, they should be able to see the original file and the changes the reviewer wants to make to the file. I just re-downloaded DC, and now I'm stuck with this terrible version and wish I had the old vesion back. I use these tools for my job. Not good at all.

Report · May 18, 2016

Selecting and replacing text DOES NOT WORK ALL THE TIME. Sorry to shout, but it's incredibly annoying. Please reinstate the Replace Text tool. If it doesn't work, I have to delete the text then insert new text - two steps instead of one!

Also, crashing. Since the update, Adobe Reader has been crashing much more often, and also can''t cope with too many changes. I've been working with a 250-page PDF with 300 changes in it., It was taking about 10 seconds for Reader to respond to each change I was making, and about 2 minutes to load the Comments when I opened the file. In the end the file froze and wouldn't let me insert any more changes!

This is unprofessional and such a waste of time for me. I use Reader for work all the time and since the update, it has been a disaster.

Adobe team - what is your answer? Have other people been reporting crashes too? And selecting text to replace it not working? It can't just be me.

Report · Jun 21, 2016

I'm sorry, but I have given up on this version of Adobe reader and found and reinstalled an earlier version that works correctly and does what it is expected to do without having to right click here and there and hope that it works correctly some of the time. I don't have the time to pfaff around with this new version.

Report · Oct 26, 2016

Do you know how I can go about procuring the same older version?

Report · May 15, 2016

Adobe handled this update very badly. The new workflow is good (at least no worse than the old one) but they made no effort to inform people that they'd changed it. All their online help stuff and videos still show the old toolbar and workflow. They also forgot to tell their support people about the change, because when I spoke to them on Friday, they had no idea what I was talking about. Just dumb.

Report · May 15, 2016

I agree, Josh. I've wasted hours joining the forum, posting messages and working out how Adobe is now working. Not helpful!

But everyone here has been very helpful, so thank you for that. Adobe, not so much.

Report · May 17, 2016

I agree with all the comments about the careless way Adobe handled this update. They are looking more like Microsoft Office 365 every day.

Re: T* tool -- No such thing (AFIK). It's geek-speak for all of the text tools that start with "T" -- the * is a wildcard. Either the hapless support folks are simply repeating what they hear from engineers, or copy-pasting from poorly written internal release notes.

Re: Missing "select and replace text" tool -- the workarounds do replicate the function of the simple, intuitive tool bar icon. Why make something hard when it used to be easy, and then call it an "improvement"?

Re: Missing "select and comment" tool -- Same. One of the support folks (repeating what someone told them) said these two tools are "redundant" because there are different ways to do the same thing.

What Adobe fails to realize (or doesn't care to), is that they are making these functions (the most helpful to writers & editors) MORE difficult for reviewers who do NOT use Adobe every day, and who are very resistant to it. I have been evangelizing for my reviewers to use PDF commenting instead of (ack) Microsoft Word reviewing tools, which they gravitate to by default. Word is a tool they understand and use frequently. Adobe Reader is nothing more than a PDF viewer to them, not the collaboration tool that it can be (and is, among savvy users). Taking away easy features and replacing them with hidden shortcuts is not helping my cause! It is a sure way to keep my reviewers flocking to Word.

Changing the default color of crossed-out text to be replaced from blue to red is unfortunate. Formerly, the blue strikeouts signaled new text, because the teeny, tiny, blue carets are way too easy to miss. If I see a swath of text with red cross-outs, I am likely to just delete it all, unless I'm careful to check the comment panel. Yes, you can change the color back to blue -- but again, I consider this a workaround for a regression bug.

Also, I don't care for the new bottom-right position of the check-box for individual comments in the comment pane. I prefer at the top right.

Report · Jun 10, 2016

Exactly the same issue.

About a month ago I finalised a document so that inexperienced and resistant clients could easily annotate PDFs for my company.

The reason being that having sticky notes is not Annotation.

Now to my horror I find even I can't find how to annotate Pdfs.

This is far from an improvement.

Report · Jun 21, 2016

Does anyone know how to change the default color for the replacement text from red to blue? When I go to properties I no longer see a box to check "default." Thanks!

Report · May 19, 2016

Hi Folks,

They removed the replace text tool and I think we've moved backwards in functionality.

You can however use the strikethrough text tool - and then add your new text inside the comment afterwards.

Hope this helps

Report · May 31, 2016

Sorry to say, but this question is not answered to my satisfaction.

First none of the so called "auto" text editing features work for me.

I find it very difficult to get rid of the dragging "hand".After a few seconds of doing nothing it will go, but and when it does eventually go, I cannot place the cursor at a point and move it along a line - there is no cursor.

I suspect that this may be the reason that clicking and then starting to type does NOTHING.

Dragging to highlight text and pressing "delete" key does NOTHING.

Dragging to highlight text and starting to type does NOTHING.

Right clicking rarely gives me any useful options - it is not the correct menu that comes up.

So please can we have some proper functionality back - esp my cursor which has completely disappeared.

Report · Jun 01, 2016

Hi pysifr

I'm not sure why the hand tool keeps appearing - have you googled it?

As for right clicking - your cursor needs to be in the right place - move it over the relevant text till you see a tiny box, *then* right click. This is quite annoying when you've only highlighted one letter for comment/correction.

Another problem I have is that when highlighting in order to add an instruction to the typesetter, the comment box not only doesn't always open, but it is often out of my view in the Comments panel, and I have to scroll around to find it so I can see what I'm typing. This must be a bug.

I'm happy to get used to new functionality but I think we're agreed that this is not an improvement, and not a suite of changes we are happy with. It's a shame this question is marked 'Considered Answered'!

Adobe Team, why won't you show you're listening, and that you care even the tiniest bit?

Report · Jun 01, 2016

Hi Karen,

Are you observing the issue with all your files? Could you please explain the steps in which you are observing the issue at along with some sample PDFs and screenshot if possible , so that we may understand it better?

Thanks

Nitish

Report · Jun 01, 2016

Hello Nitish

Thanks for trying to help. Below is a screenshot. The highlighted '=' on the left, on double clicking, had a successful opening up of a visible comment box where. However, the highlighted '=' on the right, on double clicking, did not, because the Comments pane 'jumped up' to page 5's comments. Therefore, I have to cursor down (quite a long way, to page 19's comments) to locate the box. Alternatively, I can redo the highlight, and double click again until a comment box opens up in a visible-to-me part of the Comments pane. (The same thing happens regardless of whether I use the highlight tool or right click on the text.) Of course, these were not issues before the change in functionality.

Report · Jun 01, 2016

Hi Karen,

We are not able to reproduce the issue at our end [ regarding page jumped up concern with annotation]

Could you share some sample files with annotation where you are observing the problem at nitiskum@adobe.com so that we may investigate the issue?

Thanks.

Nitish

Report · Jun 02, 2016

Hi Nitish

Before I email you, please note: it is not the *page* that moves when trying to open a box in the Comments pane (*not* a pop-up box). Rather, it is the *Comments pane* that scrolls itself up to previous pages. (Unfortunately, in my screenshot, the page number is not visible in the Comments pane because there are so many comments!) This is an intermittent occurrence. Occasionally, the text box *is* visible in the Contents pane.

As Andreas points out above, it is of course possible, having highlighted text, to right-click and open a pop-up box. However, this means it now takes two steps to highlight and write an instruction/comment. In previous versions, this could be done in one step. Therefore, in large documents where there are many corrections to make, marking up proofs becomes laborious.

Have a few more tests and see what happens. I hope that makes sense to you.

Thanks.

Karen

Report · Jun 02, 2016

I've just been reminded that the same problem as outlined for highlight also intermittently occurs with 'Insert':

I press insert --> the caret appears in the text --> I assume the box has opened in the Comments pane --> I type the inserted text --> I then cannot locate the correction in the comments pane (because it hasn't appeared)--> I have to undo the insert and redo it until the comment appears. (I was first alerted to this when typesetters queried an insert mark with no text inserted.)

(Of course, I know it's possible to simply place the cursor and start typing to insert. But occasionally I slip back by habit to the old method and it ought to be recorded that it doesn't always work!)

Report · Jun 02, 2016

Hi Karen,

We have tried both the scenarios told by you but still we are not able to see the "Comments Pane scroll itself issue" . If possible , can you record and share it the workflow through Dropbox or any other means? I think it will be more helpful for us to serve you better.

Thanks

Nitish

Report · Jun 01, 2016

This isn't an acceptable workflow for me either. I need to mark up proofs with changes for my team to implement in InDesign. The new replacement tool doesn't give me a way to alert them to the copy that requires changes. Ug.

Report · Jun 01, 2016

@chemistrykaren,

Have you tried this shortcut?

Select and highlight (or strikethrough) some text.
Double-click the highlight or strikethrough. A note pops open for that text.

I use this method *all the time* (especially since Adobe took away the toolbar icons). It's much easier than right-clicking on some special part of the screen.

Report · Jun 02, 2016

What a terrible "improvement"! The select and replace text by typing does not work.

Report · Jun 10, 2016

Pamela,

Are you still having problems with replacing text? I've found that replace text works if you only highlight one letter or a portion of a word and start typing replacement text, but does NOT work if you highlight the entire word. I'm not sure why that is. An alternative method is to highlight the text you want to replace, move the cursor over the highlighted text until a small page symbol (open rectangle with dog ear)appears, right click, and select 'Add note to Replace text (or type 'r', the underlined letter).

And anyone else reading ...

Having used the new version for a few weeks, I've concluded that most of the commenting functionality has been concertinaed into 'right click', or some combination of 'highlight' and 'type'. This is ok to an extent, but frustrations occur when marking up long proofs with many changes.

Also, there used to be better coordination between comments in the main text and the comments pane. Linked to this, why can't we control (delete, reply, etc) comments from the comments pane, as we used to be able to? Or maybe this is possible but not obvious?

Report · Jun 10, 2016

The solution of selecting text (all or part of a word) works only sometimes. I haven’t figured out what is different for the times when this doesn’t work. When the simple highlight and type doesn’t work, I highlight the text and then right-click to select the “Add Note to Replace Text” option. Without the “Add Note to Text” on the toolbar, I have to do the right-click every time. It just seems a bit less efficient than the convenient button on the toolbar. Not sure why Adobe felt it needed to go away. Disappointing.

Pamela Summers

Sr. Marketing Communications Specialist

Report · Jun 15, 2016

If you select (as roll through) rather than double click then you can make the amend with the regular pointer tool.

I can't say that this is an improvement, but at least it can be done.

Report · Feb 09, 2017

Since Adobe Reader is a free program you shouldn't be able to edit with the Replace option. I would open an Adobe Pro if you want more options.

Also, if you are in a Portfolio you wont be able to edit.